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American Morning

Grim Lesson

Aired October 03, 2003 - 09:26   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Today marks the tenth anniversary of a dark day in U.S. military history. On October 3rd, 1993, a fierce battle in Mogadishu left 18 Army Rangers dead and triggered the eventual withdrawal of American peacekeepers from Somalia. The story has been told in the book and the movie "Black Hawk Down." And the author of the book, Mark Bowden, joins us this morning, along with Michael Durant. He was a "Black Hawk" pilot and former POW who survived in Mogadishu.
Gentlemen, good morning. It's nice to have you.

Michael, I want to start with you. Does it seem like a long time has passed, or does it seem like yesterday? You remember everything so clearly about what happened that day?

MICHAEL DURANT, FORMER POW: Well, I do remember everything pretty clearly, but it does seem like a lifetime away. You know, the situation that I live every day today, it's so different from what was going on at the time. It sometimes seems like a dream, but it doesn't feel like 10 years has gone by.

O'BRIEN: Tell me a little bit in a nutshell what happened that day? You were a pilot of one of the choppers that went down?

DURANT: Right, we had done a series of missions in Somalia up to that point. They had gone relatively well, hadn't taken casualties, hadn't lost any aircraft. But this mission took a dramatic turn when we lost the first Black Hawk shot down in the city. And from that point on, the mission went into a spiral that lasted 18 hours and the resulted in the loss of a number of lives on both sides.

I was shot down about an hour into the mission. We had a pretty fierce battle at our crash site that lasted for about 40 minutes, I would say, and then was captured, spent 11 days in captivity.

O'BRIEN: The military, Mark, has looked at this, and your book specifically, to talk about the lessons that can be learned. So, first, from a humanitarian perspective, what has been learned about this?

MARK BOWDEN, AUTHOR, "BLACK HAWK DOWN": Well, I think, Soledad, for better or worse, the battle of Mogadishu and our experience in Somalia has made the United States a whole lot more reluctant to intervene militarily for humanitarian purposes. Of course, the world has changed so dramatically since September 11th. We now have military forces all over the world, but they're being projected in war against an enemy, which I think is something people accept a whole lot more readily.

Prior to Somalia, I think there was sort of a growing political movement in this country to use the United States military to intervene in humanitarian purposes, and I think this really punctured that hope.

O'BRIEN: How about tactically, what was learned?

BOWDEN: Well, everything from what kind of body armor to use on some of the Delta Force operators, wearing little plastic hockey helmets, which proved to be a bad idea, to the larger issues, like you don't send a military force overseas without giving it the full complement of weapons systems and support that it needed. I mean, there were decisions made when task force Ranger went to Somalia that were made for political reasons, not what was in the best interests of the men trying to complete the mission. And so I think that, you know, those are lessons that are re-learned, I'm affray, again and again and again in history, but that's definitely one of the things that the military has taken to heart.

O'BRIEN: It's a terrible anniversary, and I'm curious to know, Michael, do you keep in touch with other soldiers that you served with? And do you plan to mark this anniversary? Or ignore this anniversary?

DURANT: No, we keep in touch, and we are going to mark it. In fact, there are three separate events that will occur over the next couple of days. I'm physically able to make two of them, and I'm looking forward to it. The reality of it is, I haven't seen some of these people since they slid down the ropes when I put them into the target 10 years ago this very day. So it's probably going to be an emotional reunion, but I'm looking forward to it.

O'BRIEN: I have to imagine that. Michael Durant, thanks for talking with us this morning. Also, Mark Bowden, as always, nice to see you. Thanks, gentlemen. Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired October 3, 2003 - 09:26   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Today marks the tenth anniversary of a dark day in U.S. military history. On October 3rd, 1993, a fierce battle in Mogadishu left 18 Army Rangers dead and triggered the eventual withdrawal of American peacekeepers from Somalia. The story has been told in the book and the movie "Black Hawk Down." And the author of the book, Mark Bowden, joins us this morning, along with Michael Durant. He was a "Black Hawk" pilot and former POW who survived in Mogadishu.
Gentlemen, good morning. It's nice to have you.

Michael, I want to start with you. Does it seem like a long time has passed, or does it seem like yesterday? You remember everything so clearly about what happened that day?

MICHAEL DURANT, FORMER POW: Well, I do remember everything pretty clearly, but it does seem like a lifetime away. You know, the situation that I live every day today, it's so different from what was going on at the time. It sometimes seems like a dream, but it doesn't feel like 10 years has gone by.

O'BRIEN: Tell me a little bit in a nutshell what happened that day? You were a pilot of one of the choppers that went down?

DURANT: Right, we had done a series of missions in Somalia up to that point. They had gone relatively well, hadn't taken casualties, hadn't lost any aircraft. But this mission took a dramatic turn when we lost the first Black Hawk shot down in the city. And from that point on, the mission went into a spiral that lasted 18 hours and the resulted in the loss of a number of lives on both sides.

I was shot down about an hour into the mission. We had a pretty fierce battle at our crash site that lasted for about 40 minutes, I would say, and then was captured, spent 11 days in captivity.

O'BRIEN: The military, Mark, has looked at this, and your book specifically, to talk about the lessons that can be learned. So, first, from a humanitarian perspective, what has been learned about this?

MARK BOWDEN, AUTHOR, "BLACK HAWK DOWN": Well, I think, Soledad, for better or worse, the battle of Mogadishu and our experience in Somalia has made the United States a whole lot more reluctant to intervene militarily for humanitarian purposes. Of course, the world has changed so dramatically since September 11th. We now have military forces all over the world, but they're being projected in war against an enemy, which I think is something people accept a whole lot more readily.

Prior to Somalia, I think there was sort of a growing political movement in this country to use the United States military to intervene in humanitarian purposes, and I think this really punctured that hope.

O'BRIEN: How about tactically, what was learned?

BOWDEN: Well, everything from what kind of body armor to use on some of the Delta Force operators, wearing little plastic hockey helmets, which proved to be a bad idea, to the larger issues, like you don't send a military force overseas without giving it the full complement of weapons systems and support that it needed. I mean, there were decisions made when task force Ranger went to Somalia that were made for political reasons, not what was in the best interests of the men trying to complete the mission. And so I think that, you know, those are lessons that are re-learned, I'm affray, again and again and again in history, but that's definitely one of the things that the military has taken to heart.

O'BRIEN: It's a terrible anniversary, and I'm curious to know, Michael, do you keep in touch with other soldiers that you served with? And do you plan to mark this anniversary? Or ignore this anniversary?

DURANT: No, we keep in touch, and we are going to mark it. In fact, there are three separate events that will occur over the next couple of days. I'm physically able to make two of them, and I'm looking forward to it. The reality of it is, I haven't seen some of these people since they slid down the ropes when I put them into the target 10 years ago this very day. So it's probably going to be an emotional reunion, but I'm looking forward to it.

O'BRIEN: I have to imagine that. Michael Durant, thanks for talking with us this morning. Also, Mark Bowden, as always, nice to see you. Thanks, gentlemen. Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com